No Worries! (Christmas Day 2025)

No worries. Exactly. No worries.

It's about as Aussie as a saying comes, like fair dinkum. No worries. Cultures all over the world have a similar saying that says, be happy.

It's okay. No worries. I'm going to have a little quiz with you.

Let's see who knows the language or the country where this comes from. Hakuna Matata. Where?

No, the country. Not Lion King. Kenya Swahili, we were looking for, right?

Swahili. Made famous by the Lion King. C'est la vie.

French. That's life. They shrug toward circumstances you can't control.

Que sera sera? Spanish. Whatever will be, will be.

Dolce farniente. A terribly done Italian. The sweetness of doing nothing.

This is easier. Alles gut. German.

Deutschland. Yeah, all is good. Manana.

Spanish. Yeah. Manana is a really cool one.

Literally, tomorrow, it'll get done eventually. Shikata ga nai. Sorry, those of us who are Japanese.

It cannot be helped. Pura vida. Costa Rica is where it's from.

Used for hello, goodbye, thanks, and no worries. There's all sorts of ways to say no worries. You know, Jesus taught in Matthew 6, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. No worries. Jesus also said in Matthew 11, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We live in a stressed out overly busy society. I wonder what reactions might have been garnered by our sign that we had out the front, which said Christmas means no worries.

It was meant to be a little bit provocative because I think there might have been some cars go by that looked at that and thought, no worries until you lose your job, until health changes, until something happens with your kids, with their health or with your marriage.

Christmas means no worries, really? How can we say that Christmas means no worries? Well, it's not because the Christmas story is without worry, nor the life of the star of Christmas as an adult, that he lacked worry.

Let's have a think about the well-known story, A Teenage Pregnancy Out of Wedlock. Matthew 1, 18 says, This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about.

His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Mary is young, unmarried, and pregnant. In her culture, this is shameful.

She will be rejected, possibly punished. Joshua plans to divorce her quietly, as we know the story. This is not no worries.

Joseph has fear and confusion. He's a righteous man, but his righteousness is going to cost him peace. He faces a decision that will ruin him in standing in the community, but he has a divine dream that helps him through.

Luke tells us that they had to make a long journey, 150 kilometres from Nazareth in the north to Bethlehem. She's heavily pregnant. Of course, this is not without worry and concern.

They get there, there's no room, there's no shelter, there's no safety. The baby is born in less than desirable conditions. It's worrisome.

Shepherds come and the angels say, don't be terrified, because they are. They're afraid. And then a violent king feels threatened by the news that a king has been born and his paranoia sets the stage for violence.

And then we're told in the Christmas story, the Nativity story, that there is a massacre of children under two years old in Bethlehem at the command of this ruthless king. And then an angel comes and tells Joseph and Mary and Jesus to flee.

And so suddenly they become refugees and they go to a foreign land in Egypt. And then when the king finally dies, they come back but they end up going north to a safe haven to Nazareth where we're told in the Bible nothing good comes from.

So Christmas is not God entering a no worries world, is it? Christmas is God entering a world full of worry, fear, injustice, danger and instability.

And then when Jesus grew to be a man, around the age of 30, he began his ministry and we know a lot about what he did. He was misunderstood. He was hunted.

He wept. He agonized in Gethsemane. He faced abandonment, injustice and death, coming to the point where he would say, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Matthew 26. I think it's fair to say that Jesus knows worry from the inside. He knows what it is to feel worry, yet he said, he taught Hakuna Matata.

He didn't say that, but he said, don't worry about tomorrow. It's interesting. There's so many worries, but he says, don't worry about tomorrow.

I think our society at present gets worry. Don't you agree? They understand the impact of anxiety.

We're told that this current most young group of adults coming into adulthood is the most anxious generation ever. They're an amazing generation, but they feel anxiety. Why?

Well, we're told constant connectivity with social media, comparison 24-7, news is part of this, performance pressure with identity tied to achievement, economic uncertainty, housing, work, cost of living, loss of shared meaning, meaningful

structures, decline of faith, community, global instability, they've lived through a pandemic, climate anxiety, there are wars. Younger generations live with continuous low-level threat, even when they're physically safe.

And so out of that level of anxiety and angst that is there in society, there has grown a burgeoning happiness industry. Because the world has said, how do we fix this? How do we fix the anxiety?

Let's try to be happy. Hakuna Matata, don't worry, be happy. So how do you do that?

And so there are hundreds, I had a look, there are hundreds of podcasts and books out. And I said to Ben, do you know of any good books on happiness? And he said, Jonathan Haidt, H-A-I-D-T or hate, has a good book.

It's one of the top books. He's a secular social psychologist. And it's called The Happiness Hypothesis.

So I bought the book, and I had a look. What's the world saying about happiness? How do I overcome anxiety?

How do you get to live the don't worry, no worries life? And pretty fascinating book. He came up with looking at ancient wisdom all the way through multiple thousand years to modern wisdom, and came up with 10 big ideas for happiness.

10 big ideas for happiness. And what I found interesting as I read through them was every one of the 10 Jesus teachers also. Fascinating.

Things like the importance of integrity and character. To have a happy life and no worries, a kuna matata life. Don't be judgmental of others.

Remember Jesus said something about logs and specks. They talk about the law of reciprocity. Treat others how you would want to be treated.

That's what Jesus said. The power of deep loving relationships. And what I found also interesting was the importance of worship.

Even if you're not a believer in a god, to have awe and transcendence as part of your life, there were these 10 big ideas that Jesus actually taught as well in different ways, in order that people might live a flourishing, no worries, happy life.

So to answer the question, how does Jesus say no worries? Don't worry about tomorrow. I think part of that answer is, well, he had some really good ideas.

He taught well about how to live as a human being a good and happy life.

And yet, for all the similarities, Jesus dealt with something that no other happiness teacher ever did. He deals with our sin. Jesus was born at Christmas to die at Easter.

Jesus didn't just teach about how to live a good and happy life. Jesus dealt with what I would put to you, even if you don't know it, I would put to you the greatest concern that we have as human beings is not just what am I going to do tomorrow?

How do I deal with my issues for tomorrow? The greatest issue is, is there a God who has made me as a morally accountable human being? Do I face my maker in the end?

Is there such a thing as eternal life? Does it matter how I live? I think deep down, the human condition asks the question, what happens after I die?

Does it matter how I live? Is there such a thing as sin? And the Bible is really clear.

It says, yes, God has defined how he wants his people, human beings, to live. And we miss that target of perfection, and it's called sin.

When we fail and we have all failed, the Bible gloriously says that Jesus, who was born of a virgin, amidst all the scandal at Christmas, he never sinned.

He got to his thirties, and he went to the cross, and he took the weight of sin upon himself, our sin, and he was a sacrifice in our place. The Bible says in many places, but one spot, a wonderful truth, 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

God made him who had no sin, remember I just said he was sinless, to be sinned for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In other places, we become the righteousness of God when we believe and we put our faith in Jesus, when we give him our allegiance and say, I believe and I want to follow you.

Jesus, the Bible teacher, died on a cross in our place, so that a glorious divine exchange could take place, that we could receive what he deserves, and he would take what we deserve. And what is that?

Well, when Jesus died in our place, we get life, he gets death. We get relationship with Father God. He's abandoned by Father God.

We get peace, genuinely, no worries. And he takes our worries. Jesus says to us today, Matthew 11, verse 28, come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Can I ask you on this Christmas day, 2025, are you ready to experience the no worries life that Jesus promises?

He teaches very clearly in other places, as does the rest of the New Testament, this life of following him will not be without suffering, it will not be without hardship, it won't be without disappointment, but it will be a life walking with God

experiencing his peace that exceeds understanding. It will surprise you daily, the peace that is available.

Rest from the worries of this world, that is true, he offers us a way to handle, to resize our problems, bring them before God and feel a current peace, a peace that is now.

But also, there is a rest from the worries of what comes after this world, what comes after I face God. Is there eternal life? Well, yes, there is.

So the sign out the front says, Christmas means no worries. Could say mate at the end. Christmas means no worries.

Is that false advertising or is it the truth? I would say to you today, it is absolutely the truth. Christmas means no worries because God arrived in the form of Jesus and he won the battle against our greatest worry, death.

Amen. We are his witnesses. All over this room, there are people whose lives have been transformed and changed.

And we're not filled with happiness every day, if we're straight up honest. But there is a deep joy, an abiding joy that very regularly manifest itself in unbridled happiness to know that we know the living God.

Jesus Christ was born at Christmas to die at Easter, and he didn't stay dead. Hallelujah. He rose again from the grave.

And it's because of the resurrection of Jesus that we, by faith in him, can have a hope of eternal life that we would be resurrected also. And that, ultimately, friends, is why we can say Christmas means no worries. No worries.

Ben and Stephanie are going to come and sing us a song about peace. It's a beautiful song with really profound words. So I encourage you to take a moment to stop and reflect and ask yourself if you have the peace of God this Christmas.

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